Friday

I think a while ago, OK - a LONG while ago, I had done a few "flashback" cards here and there using retired SU product from my stash. I'm not one to give up my favorite retired merchandise so easily... I love it too much! And, this card my inspire you pull out and use that same DSP or stamp set today - which serves my purpose for making my "flashback" cards!

I made a card for one of Splitcoaststampers challenges this week. What a fun challenge, too! This is my first Teapot Tuesday card, and I was able to make this for EPEC (extra points for extra cookies!). Here's the story behind the challenge, and I hope that you'll be able to play along, too....

I loved making this card with the always beautiful, Always Thankful, stamp set. The image was watercolored with an aquapainter and SU inks. The edges of the vanilla and DSP panels were lightly sponged. These were matted and then glued down. I stamped an extra set of the wheat stalks, watercolored them, cut 'em out and glued them on top of the original image to add that little extra dimension and have a couple of the wheat sprays on top of the sentiment. Lastly I added little 1/8" circle punch-outs from black cardstock to make faux brads.

Thanks for looking at my challenge card, and I hope you can dust off some items in your stash and play today... Comment below with a link to your card - I'd love to see it!

Thursday

I used the same colored pencil technique from yesterday's post to make this Valentine card. I love how easy it is to deepen the interior of flowers to give them some dimension. I used the Whisper White cut-out from the Labels Collection frame used in yesterday's card to make the main panel on today's card. I stamped the flowers in Pink Pirouette and the leaves in Gumball Green using the masking technique to make the leaves appear behind the flower petals. After coloring the petals with pink colored pencils, pearls were added to the flower centers. I very lightly sponged So Saffron ink on the panel's edges. The hummingbird was stamped in Raspberry Ripple, and the panel was matted on the same color cardstock. This was trimmed to make a lovely framed border. This panel was popped up with dimensional popdots on the Whisper White cardbase. The cardbase has the beautiful Lacy Brocade embossed panel matted with Raspberry Ripple cardstock. The embossing texture was brought to life with a coloring of Pink Pirouette ink that was applied using a brayer. The edge of this background was very lightly sponged with So Saffron ink.I hope that your Valentine's Day is filled with love and laughter!~JuneStamps: Bloomin' Marvelous (SAB set)Paper: Whisper White, Raspberry RippleInk: So Saffron, Gumball Green, Raspberry Ripple, Pink PirouetteAccessories: popdots, pearls, colored pencils, Labels Collection framelit, Lacy Brocade embossing folder, BigShot, brayer, sponge dauber

Wednesday

The beginning of the year is always a great time of year at Stampin' Up! It's SaleABration time through March 22, and one of my favorite Free stamp sets from the SaleABration catalog is called "Bloomin' Marvelous". This card was made with stamps from that beautiful set.

First, I used the 3rd largest Labels Collection framelit and cut out the shape on a white cardstock panel to make a masking frame. I placed that frame on another piece of white cardstock, then sponged on So Saffron ink around the edges to create the outlined shape. Leaving the frame on the paper, I stamped the flowers in Pool Party ink, then the leaves in Lucky Limeade ink with a masking technique. The butterfly was stamped in Peach Parfait, and I added little pearls for it's body. The top frame was removed, and I cut around the outlined shape leaving a 1/8th inch border so that I could add little pen dots around the outer edge. The depth of flowers was achieved by using 2 darker shades of blue colored pencils to darken up the interior of the flower petals. I added little black and Peach Parfait pen dots to the centers of the flowers. To create the cardbase, I embossed a separate piece of white cardstock that was embossed with the Square Lattice folder. I glued it down on top of the card, then attached the flowery stamped panel to the cardbase with dimensional popdots.

You can have your own Bloomin' Marvelous set with a $50 product purchase. Click the SaleABration catalog on the left to see the cute selections this year.

Tuesday

For those of you that know me well, you know that I'm a die-hard Star Trek fan.... especially "The Next Generation" series. I was tickled when I saw this video released by Stampin' Up! recently:

I think that was pretty silly and fun! I like to believe that hand-made items & gifts will still be appreciated that far into the future - after all, it comes from the heart! But there's no denying that we are in a digital age, and technology rocks! (In other words, I would die without the internet! LOL!) Using technology certainly makes our life easier, and one of my most favorite Stampin' Up! products that saves so much time is the My Digital Studio software package. SU! has an ongoing Free offer available to download and use MDS2 for 30 days, plus you have a huge MDS catalog available with more digital items released every Tuesday. Click the image to learn more about this versatile program....

My son, Alex, is serving a 2 year mission for our church and sends home atonofphotos on SD cards. I was able to start his scrapbook album to record his missionary experiences using MDS2. When he returns home, these 12x12 pages will be printed, and I will turn each of them into a hybrid page (a combination of digital and traditional scrapbook page). It will be easy for me to add on a few embellishments here and there to 'dress it up', and for Alex to journal his memories and add names & dates. It's great to sit down for a couple hours every few weeks and keep up with his photos - MDS2 makes this a very easy project to complete! Here's a snippet of what I've done so far -

MDS2 is versatile. It does more than just scrapbook pages and albums - you can create journals, cards, tags, calendars, videos, DVDs.... and you can print from home, send files to your local printer, or have your projects professionally created through SU!'s service providers. It's truly a great product!

** Blogs I Visit **

First and foremost, I love Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ. I am truly blessed with four wonderful children and have been married to my sweet DH for over twenty-five years.

I love being creative with papercrafting, quilting, altered items and mixed media artwork. Horseback riding, gardening, and reading are other favorite hobbies. We love and share our home with a menagerie of animals.